Non-RPG General News - Stellaris Reviews

The first reviews for the 4x scifi strategy game Stellaris are out:

Destructoid:

[...]

This is a game for anyone who has already enjoyed the grand strategy genre or anyone who has always wanted to. There is a strong sense of accomplishment from starting an empire and guiding it along the path you choose, even if it eventually ends in failure. Stellaris is easy to comprehend and exciting to execute, which is a perfect combination for a genre notoriously difficult to break into.

Score: 9/10

Rock, Paper, Shotgun:

[...]

I say that I’d expected something messier and part of me had hoped for something messier. That messiness may come with expansions and DLC, but for now Stellaris is incredibly assured and confident, if perhaps a little too tidy and streamlined. It’s one of the most accomplished 4X space games I’ve ever played, but it feels knowable. Despite all of the randomisation and the extraordinary influence of Fallen Empires and other features that shake the 4X formula hard enough to make it wobble, this is a game that can be understood, analysed and mastered. Doing so has been, and will continue to be, a joy, and yet I crave the early days of exploration before the galactic map became a place on which to exterminate the competition rather than to find new ways of living.

The great experiment of the game was not so much the change of scenery, from history to science fiction, it was the decision to create a Civ-like game of expansion with some complexities and aspects of simulation borrowed from grand strategy. It’s in the simulation of a living galaxy that most of the complexity has been lost, but what has been gained is a precise and finely tuned machine. Less erratic and surprising than its ancestors, but much more elegant in its design.

IGN:

[...]

Stellaris is filled with good ideas, and it’s not difficult to see the outline of a great space strategy game where those ideas could come together. But beyond the early game, it’s only compelling in bits and pieces – it turns into a largely uneventful slog after that. Paradox has developed a reputation of major upgrades to their games for years after launch, and Stellaris is going to need all that love and more to reach its potential.

Score: 6.3/10

PC Invasion:

[...]

Thoroughly alien in presentation, yet unerringly human in many of its galactic power tousles, Stellaris successfully gene-splices the themes of a 4X game with the mechanics and systems perfected over Paradox’s last couple of grand strategy titles. The complexity curve, often a bit of a problem for newcomers in prior releases, will be smooth enough for those who’ve played a strategy game or 4X before; while Paradox veterans will be immediately at home with a star-nation sandbox that shows every sign of being another long-term strategic triumph.

Score: 8/10